PART 3, TIRANA
Scanderbeg Square (1)
1988: The Palace of Culture and government offices in Scanderbeg Square….
2019: …are overtopped by apartment blocks and skyscrapers.
Scanderbeg Square (2)
1988: The suburbs north of the square were a jumble of housing blocks and Ottoman villas.
2019: If it wasn’t for the mountains, you could be forgiven for thinking that these were two unrelated locations.
Scanderbeg Square (3)
1988: Hotel Peza was at the rear of Hotel Tirana, on the corner of Bulevardi Stalin.
2019: The building has been refurbished and a fifth floor added. It has been converted into the headquarters of an insurance company. Bulevardi Stalin is now known as Bulevardi Zogu i Parë.
Scanderbeg Square (4)
1988: Changes to the street and buildings mean that …
2019: …trying to match old and new is trying to force jigsaw puzzle pieces together.
Scanderbeg Square (5)
1988: Enver Hoxha’s golden statue that had once stood in Scanderbeg Square….
2021: …has become a distant memory.
Scanderbeg Square (6)
1988: The sunken garden behind Scanderbeg's statue has been renovated.....
2019: ...and is now Parku Europa. Perspectives have altered. Originally, there had been ten steps down into the garden. Now there are four.
Scanderbeg Square (7)
1988: Scanderbeg Square by night was a mysterious, underlit space....
2025: ...now it is a lively place, even on a cold, rainy night in October.
Scanderbeg Square (8)
1988: The Et'hem Bey Mosque, Clock Tower and government buildings are still integral parts of Scanderbeg Square.....
2025... but now they share the space with new buildings that tower over them.
Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit
1988: PPSH on the roof of the Enver Hoxha University has gone and the road is busy with traffic....
2019: ... but the view along Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit is not much changed since communism.
Rruga e Kavajës (1)
1988: This communist-era plaque commemorates a student uprising in January 1944. It's on the wall of a youth centre next to Tirana’s Chamber of Commerce.
2019: Someone has scrawled Partizani in yellow spray paint beneath it.
Rruga e Kavajës (2)
1988: Xhamia Dine Hoxha had been built in the 1920s. It was closed in 1967 and its minaret pulled down.
2019: It reopened in 1996 with a new minaret and a new zinc dome.
Rruga e Kavajës (3)
1988: Zemra e Krishtit was built in 1939 at the beginning of the Italian occupation. During atheism, it was used as a cinema.
2019: It reopened for worship in 1991.
Rruga e Kavajës (4)
1988: A bread shop on Rruga e Kavajës….
2019: ….has become a clothes boutique - another astonishing transformation.
Tirana street art
1998: Transferable skills? Street art during…
2019: …and after communism.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (1)
1988: Ceremonial guards stood watch over Enver Hoxha's tomb. Hoxha was removed from the Cemetery in 1992.
2019: His place was taken by student activist Azem Hajdari.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (2)
1988: Since the end of communism, the green cordon between the Cemetery and the city…
2019:…has become home to a number of foreign Embassies.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (3)
1988: During communism, red floral borders were a dominant motif.
2019: These days, planting is less formal with bushes, trees and lots of roses.
Martyrs’ Cemetery, Tirana (4)
1988: The statue of Mother Albania ...
2019: … is still a dominating, even intimidating presence.